DOCSLIB.ORG

Entanglements Between Church and State in America

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Entanglements Between Church and State in America 2~ CHAPTER SEVEN THE SUPREME COURT AS A GUARDIAN The Supreme Court addressed the great issues of religious faith and practice only rarely during its first century of operation. It usually let state law and local custom prevail except where some larger constitutional value was at stake. Even in the first decades of this century, the Court was circumspect in its treatment of religious controversies. Most of the cases that directly implicated the religion clauses in these early years involved members of religious minorities, particularly Mormons and Catholics. The Court weighed the religious issues~~which often played only a minor part in the Court's final determination~-on the scales of a generalized Christian standard of personal morality and public expression without explicitly defining religion. Specific cultic practices that threatened to disturb public peace and order simply fell outside the pale of free exercise protections. This early period is covered in Chapter Seven. The justices began to negotiate more precise constitutional metes and bounds in earnest during the 1940s after the Court decided that the Fourteenth Amendment made the free exercise and establishment provisions of the First Amendment applicable to the states and localities. A rough sketch of acceptable practices and legitimate regulations began to emerge. With a few exceptions, such as the polygamy cases, the Court had until then carefully avoided taking an activist role in the area of 259 religion. But in its efforts to correct some definite abuses and constitutional problems in the local regulation of religious proselytism, the Court perhaps needlessly broadened its jurisdiction, leaving it open to a myriad of competing claims and counterclaims. Moving from the protection of what one commentator called "a sect distinguished by great religious zeal and astonishing powers of annoyance," 1 the Court then began taking up the complex financial, pedagogical, and social issues that, since 1947, have become the primary focus of its deliberations on the place of religion in the proper study of mankind. These later years are covered in Chapter Eight. Accommodation Although the religion clauses of the Constitution were not subjected to close scrutiny by the Supreme Court until late in the nineteenth century, religious issues figured in a few cases that reveal much about the Americanization of common law principles and the evolution of the constitutional tradition. While most of these cases concerned church property, wills, and unincorporated religious societies, some of them anticipated the issues of religious liberty that began to fill the Court's docket at the start of World War Two. The first cases to reach the Court early in the nineteenth century are indicative of the difficult legal transition from a tradition of church establishments to the new system of free churches. During the colonial period, only the established churches and a privileged minority of the dissenting churches were able to protect their property by means of incorporation. Ever since the Tudor period, established churches 260 operated as municipal corporations vested with the ability to acquire property and govern their affairs, raise revenues, and compel attendance at their services. All this changed when, following the War for Independence, one church establishment after another was dissolved. Suffrage was extended to dissenters in places where Catholics, Jews, Baptists, Unitarians, and Quakers had once been excluded. Mortmain statutes that limited the rights of churches disappeared. But despite these changes, much remained the same. A few states barred clergymen from holding public offices. Religious corporations were treated as creatures of the state. Title to church property had to be vested either in lay trustees or in the clergy as corporations sole, rather than in the ruling ecclesiastical body, thus reinforcing a pronounced bias in favor of congregational forms of church government. Hierarchical churches, such as the Roman Catholic Church, were consequently disadvantaged. According to Patrick J. Dignan: The American legal theory of corporations is fundamentally the same as that of English law. There can be no corporation which is not the creation of the civil law, and all tenure of property likewise required civil authority. The Church enjoys a large measure of freedom, bu~ the law does not, within the United States, deal with it as such. The early Supreme Court cases involving trusts, bequests, and police powers helped establish a pattern of accommodation, secular control, and dependency that has characterized the interaction of church and state ever since. Despite the growth of practical religious liberty, some of the habits of state intervention have continued to persist and have lately grown in various and subtle ways. In the absence of an official religious establishment, the unifying value of an 261 ideological common ground has had to be pursued by other means. Historically, these means have included political and religious pluralism, national symbols and ceremonies, nonsectarian education, a national language, and the secularization of religious traditions into a common moral code. Trusts and Bequests In Terrett v. Taylor, 9 Cranch 43 (1815), the Court upheld the vested property rights of an Episcopal church and ruled unconstitutional a Virginia statute confiscating its lands, denying that a state "can repeal statutes creating private corporations" or "by such repeal can vest the property of such corporations exclusively in the state . without the consent or default of the corporators." By upholding the right of the former established church of Virginia to retain its corporate identity and endowments, the Court claimed to stand "upon the principles of natural justice, upon the fundamental laws of every free government, upon the spirit and letter of the constitution of the United States, and upon the decisions of the most respectable judicial tribunals. " ( 9 Cranch 43, 52). Justice Story, in a unanimous opinion, discoursed on the limited powers of the state under a constitutional form of government: Had the property thus acquired been originally granted by the state or the king, there might have been some color (and it would have been but a color) for such an extraordinary pretension. But the property was, in fact and in law, generally purchased by the parishioners, or acquired by the benefactions of pious donors. The title thereto was indefeasibly vested in the churches, or rather in their legal agents. It was not in the power of the crown to seize or assume it; nor of the parliament itself to destroy the grants, unless by the exercise of a power the most arbitrary, oppressive and unjust, and endured only because it could not be resisted. It 262 was not forfeited; for the churches had committed no offence. The dissolution of the regal government no more destroyed the right to possess or enjoy this property than it did the right of any other corporation or individual to his or its own property. The dissolution of the form of government did not involve in it a dissolution of civil rights, or an abolition of the common law under which the inheritances of every man in the state were held. The state itself succeeded only to the rights of the crown; and, we may add, with many a flower of prerogative struck from its hands. It has been asserted as a principle of the common law that the division of an empire creates no forfeiture of previously vested rights of property (9 Cranch 43, 49~50). But while affirming the right of the legislature to abolish the exclusive rights and prerogatives once enjoyed by the Episcopal Church, the Court also upheld the permissibility--if not the duty--of aiding religion generally: But the free exercise of religion cannot be justly deemed to be restrained by aiding with equal attention the votaries of every sect to perform their own religious duties, or by establishing funds for the support of ministers, for public charities, for the endowment of churches, or for the sepulture of the dead. And that these purposes could be better secured and cherished by corporate powers, cannot be doubted by any person who has attended to the difficulties which surround all voluntary associations. While, therefore, the legislature might exempt the citizens from a compulsive attendance and payment of taxes in support of any particular sect, it is not perceived that either public or constitutional principles required the abolition of all religious corporations (9 Cranch 43, 49). In Town of Pawlet v. Clark, 9 Cranch 292 (1815), a town in Vermont pressed its claim to a tract of land originally set aside under a colonial grant as a glebe to support a parish church. Justice Story, who again wrote the Court's opinion, held that it was "a clear principle that the common law in force at the emigration of our ancestors is deemed the birth right of the colonies unless so far as it is inapplicable to their situation, or repugnant to their other rights and privileges" (9 Cranch 292, 333). Under English common law, the parsons of Episcopal churches that were duly erected and consecrated had a right 263 to the glebe in perpetual succession. An unappropriated glebe could be used by the crown for other purposes, but only with the consent of the town, which was still legally obliged to provide for a church. In this case, the church had never been built. The Episcopal society that later took possession of the glebe was founded only in 1802, long after independence. The Court upheld the claim of the town and declared that "a mere voluntary Society of Episcopalians within a town, unauthorized by the crown, could no more entitle themselves, on account of their religious tenets, to the glebe, than any other society worshiping therein" (9 Cranch 292, 334). The Church of England had never existed as a corporation but only as an ecclesiastical institution under the patronage of the state.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Judicial Acquiescence in the Forfeiture of Constitutional Rights Through Expansion of the Conditioned Privilege Doctrine
    Indiana Law Journal Volume 28 Issue 4 Article 4 Summer 1953 Judicial Acquiescence in the Forfeiture of Constitutional Rights through Expansion of the Conditioned Privilege Doctrine Follow this and additional works at: https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/ilj Part of the Constitutional Law Commons Recommended Citation (1953) "Judicial Acquiescence in the Forfeiture of Constitutional Rights through Expansion of the Conditioned Privilege Doctrine," Indiana Law Journal: Vol. 28 : Iss. 4 , Article 4. Available at: https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/ilj/vol28/iss4/4 This Note is brought to you for free and open access by the Law School Journals at Digital Repository @ Maurer Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in Indiana Law Journal by an authorized editor of Digital Repository @ Maurer Law. For more information, please contact [email protected]. INDIANA LAW JOURNAL from detruction by Communism, there is vital need to salvage consti- tutionally guaranteed rights from annihilation by these same efforts. Both courts and legislatures should re-examine the Communist threat and should then determine whether recent laws do themselves present more of a threat to our freedom than does subversion. JUDICIAL ACQUIESCENCE IN THE FORFEITURE OF CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS THROUGH EXPANSION OF THE CONDITIONED PRIVILEGE DOCTRINE Mr. Justice Douglas, dissenting in Adler v. Board of Education of the City of New York, declared: "I have not been able to accept the recent doctrine that a citizen who enters the public service can be forced to sacrifice his civil rights. I cannot for example find in our constitutional scheme the power of the state to place its employees in the category of second class citizens by denying them freedom of thought and expres- sion."' It is both surprising and noteworthy that Mr.
    [Show full text]
  • AJ Muste's Theology
    ! A.J. Muste’s Theology: Tracing the Ideas that Shaped the Man Jeffrey D. Meyers M.A. Thesis Earlham School of Religion April 16, 2012 ! Table of Contents Introduction 1 Chapter 1: A Short Biography 4 Chapter 2: The Theological Task 14 Chapter 3: Mysticism and the Inner Life 22 Chapter 4: The Social Gospel 34 Chapter 5: The Way of Love, the Way of the Cross 43 Chapter 6: Theological Anthropology 61 Chapter 7: Ecclesiology 81 Chapter 8: Eschatology: The Kingdom of God 101 Conclusions 115 Annotated Bibliography 121 Appendix 1a: Books Owned By Muste 150 Appendix 1b: Books Owned By Muste 158 Appendix 2: Authors Cited By Muste 176 Appendix 3: Books Assigned By Muste 191 Introduction Historians study the Reverend Abraham Johannes Muste primarily for his shaping of the labor movement of the 1920s and 1930s, his work for peace from the mid 1930s through the 1960s, and his involvement in laying the foundations of the Civil Rights Movement.1 His leadership in these movements often gained him national attention––Time Magazine once labeled him “the No. 1 U.S. Pacifist.”2 Although most attempts at understanding this complex man have noted the influence of his Christian faith, few scholars have explored its true depth. The religious foundations of his life, thought, and work were often an embarrassment to those he worked with and those who admired him. In avoiding Muste’s faith, his contemporaries and scholars alike have missed the ways his theology undergirded and motivated his life and work. At heart, Muste was a theologian.
    [Show full text]
  • 1. Will Learn How to Analyze Historical Narratives
    History 308/708, RN314/614, TX849 Religious Thought in America Fall Term, 2018 MWF: 1:25-2:15 Jon H. Roberts Office Hours: Mon. 3-5, Tues. 9-10, Office: 226 Bay State Road, Room 406 and by appointment 617-353-2557 (O); 781-209-0982 (H) [email protected] Course Description: Few concepts have proved more difficult to define than religion, but most students of the subject would agree that religious traditions commonly include rituals and other practices, aesthetic and emotional experiences, and a body of ideas typically expressed as beliefs. This course focuses on those beliefs during the course of American history from the first English colonial settlement to the present and on their interaction with the broader currents of American culture. Theology is the term often used to describe the systematic expression of religious doctrine. It is clearly possible, however, to discuss religious beliefs outside the context of formal theology, and it is at least arguable that some of the most influential beliefs in American history have received their most vivid and forceful expressions beyond the purview of theological discourse. Accordingly, while much of our attention in this course will focus on the works of theologians and clergy--the religious “professionals”--we shall also deal with religious strategies that a widely disparate group of other thinkers (e.g., scientists, artists, and other influential lay people) have deployed in attempting to account for the nature of the cosmos, the structure of the social order, and the dynamics of human experience. Most of the people whom we’ll be studying were committed proponents of Christianity or Judaism, but the course lectures and readings will also occasionally move outside of those traditions to include others.
    [Show full text]
  • Admission to the Bar: a Constitutional Analysis
    Vanderbilt Law Review Volume 34 Issue 3 Issue 3 - April 1981 Article 4 4-1981 Admission to the Bar: A Constitutional Analysis Ben C. Adams Edward H. Benton David A. Beyer Harrison L. Marshall, Jr. Carter R. Todd See next page for additional authors Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.vanderbilt.edu/vlr Part of the Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility Commons, and the Legal Profession Commons Recommended Citation Ben C. Adams; Edward H. Benton; David A. Beyer; Harrison L. Marshall, Jr.; Carter R. Todd; and Jane G. Allen Special Projects Editor, Admission to the Bar: A Constitutional Analysis, 34 Vanderbilt Law Review 655 (1981) Available at: https://scholarship.law.vanderbilt.edu/vlr/vol34/iss3/4 This Note is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Vanderbilt Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in Vanderbilt Law Review by an authorized editor of Scholarship@Vanderbilt Law. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Admission to the Bar: A Constitutional Analysis Authors Ben C. Adams; Edward H. Benton; David A. Beyer; Harrison L. Marshall, Jr.; Carter R. Todd; and Jane G. Allen Special Projects Editor This note is available in Vanderbilt Law Review: https://scholarship.law.vanderbilt.edu/vlr/vol34/iss3/4 SPECIAL PROJECT Admission to the Bar: A Constitutional Analysis I. INTRODUCTION .................................... 657 II. PERMANENT ADMISSION TO THE BAR ................. 661 A. Good Moral Character ....................... 664 1. Due Process--The Analytical Framework... 666 (a) Patterns of Conduct Resulting in a Finding of Bad Moral Character:Due Process Review of Individual Deter- minations ........................
    [Show full text]
  • First Amendment
    FIRST AMENDMENT RELIGION AND FREE EXPRESSION CONTENTS Page Religion ....................................................................................................................................... 1063 An Overview ....................................................................................................................... 1063 Scholarly Commentary ................................................................................................ 1064 Court Tests Applied to Legislation Affecting Religion ............................................. 1066 Government Neutrality in Religious Disputes ......................................................... 1070 Establishment of Religion .................................................................................................. 1072 Financial Assistance to Church-Related Institutions ............................................... 1073 Governmental Encouragement of Religion in Public Schools: Released Time ...... 1093 Governmental Encouragement of Religion in Public Schools: Prayers and Bible Reading ..................................................................................................................... 1094 Governmental Encouragement of Religion in Public Schools: Curriculum Restriction ................................................................................................................ 1098 Access of Religious Groups to Public Property ......................................................... 1098 Tax Exemptions of Religious Property .....................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Constitutional Law - Due Process - Denial of Admission to the Bar Based on Unwarranted Inferences of Bad Moral Character
    Michigan Law Review Volume 56 Issue 3 1958 Constitutional Law - Due Process - Denial of Admission to the Bar Based on Unwarranted Inferences of Bad Moral Character Jerome B. Libin University of Michigan Law School Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr Part of the Constitutional Law Commons, Fourteenth Amendment Commons, Jurisdiction Commons, Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility Commons, Legal Profession Commons, and the Supreme Court of the United States Commons Recommended Citation Jerome B. Libin, Constitutional Law - Due Process - Denial of Admission to the Bar Based on Unwarranted Inferences of Bad Moral Character, 56 MICH. L. REV. 415 (1958). Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol56/iss3/5 This Response or Comment is brought to you for free and open access by the Michigan Law Review at University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Michigan Law Review by an authorized editor of University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. COMMENTS CONSTITUTIONAL LAW-DUE PROCESS-DENIAL OF ADMISSION TO THE BAR BASED ON UNWARRANTED INFERENCES OF BAD MORAL CHARACTER-Power over admission to the bar has long been vest- 416 MICHIGAN LAW REVIEW [ Vol. 56 ed in the judiciary of each state. While the legislature may pre­ scribe certain standards, the state court alone is responsible for the determination of those qualified for the practice of law with­ in its jurisdiction. The application of these standards often de­ mands the exercise of meticulous judgment by the court in reaching its conclusion as to an applicant's fitness.
    [Show full text]
  • Bainton-Bibliography-A-Preview.Pdf
    Bainton.book Page 4 Friday, October 22, 2010 2:02 PM Copyright © 2000 Truman State University Press, Kirksville, MO 63501 www2.truman.edu/tsup All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America Habent sua fata libelli Sixteenth Century Essays & Studies, Vol. XLVII Raymond A. Mentzer, General Editor Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Lund, Cynthia Wales, 1949– A Bainton bibliography / by Cynthia Wales Lund. p. cm. – (Sixteenth century essays & studies : v. 47) Includes index. ISBN 0-943549-66-3 (alk. paper) 1. Bainton, Roland Herbert, 1894– —Bibliography. I. Title. II. Series. Z8065.58.L86 1998 [BR139.B] 98-377 081—dc21 CIP Cover Design: Teresa Wheeler, Truman State University Designer Text: Adobe Garamond 10/13 ∞The paper in this publication meets or exceeds the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials Z39.48 (1984). Bainton.book Page vii Friday, October 22, 2010 2:02 PM CONTENTS Works about Roland H. Bainton Acknowledgments . ix Introductory Word for the Bibliography . xi Introduction . xiv Events in the Life of Roland H. Bainton . xxi Academic Memberships Held by Roland H. Bainton . xxiv Published Materials by Roland H. Bainton A. Monographs . .3 B. Translations by RHB . .33 C. Articles Published in Monographs . .35 Studies in Church History . 35 On Teaching and Writing. 44 Issues of War and Peace . 44 Concerns of the Pastoral Ministry . 45 Popular Faith and Preaching. 46 The Church and Society. 47 D. Articles Published in Periodicals . .48 Studies in Church History . 48 On Teaching and Writing. 57 Issues of War and Peace .
    [Show full text]
  • Consequences of Supreme Court Decisions Upholding Individual Constitutional Rights
    Michigan Law Review Volume 83 Issue 1 1984 Consequences of Supreme Court Decisions Upholding individual Constitutional Rights Jesse H. Choper University of California, Berkeley Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr Part of the Constitutional Law Commons, Jurisprudence Commons, Legal History Commons, and the Supreme Court of the United States Commons Recommended Citation Jesse H. Choper, Consequences of Supreme Court Decisions Upholding individual Constitutional Rights, 83 MICH. L. REV. 1 (1984). Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol83/iss1/2 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Michigan Law Review at University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Michigan Law Review by an authorized editor of University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. CONSEQUENCES OF SUPREME COURT DECISIONS UPHOLDING INDIVIDUAL CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS Jesse H. Choper* TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION .•••...••••••••.••••.••• •'. • • • • • • • • . • • • • • • • • • . 4 I. COMPLEXITIES OF MEASUREMENT • • • • . • • . • • . • • • • . 7 II. SOME ILLUSTRATIONS PRIOR TO 1935.................. 12 A. The Post-Civil War Period . 12 B. The "Lochner" Era . 13 III. THE HUGHES, STONE, AND VINSON COURTS........... 14 A. Rights of the Accused. 15 1. Coerced Confessions . 15 2. Appointed Counsel . 15 a. Federal prosecutions . 15 b. State prosecutions. 16 B. Free Speech: Labor Picketing . 17 C. Religious Freedom: Jehovah's Witnesses............. 18 D. Company Towns................................... 19 E. Racial Discrimination . 19 1. Voting......................................... 19 2. Housing....................................... 21 3. Education . 22 IV. THE WARREN COURT................................... 25 A. Racial Separation . 25 1. Segregation . 25 2. Miscegenation . 28 * Dean and Professor of Law, University of California, Berkeley.
    [Show full text]
  • A Passion for Justice
    Touro Law Review Volume 26 Number 2 Article 3 September 2012 A Passion for Justice Charles A. Reich Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.tourolaw.edu/lawreview Part of the Judges Commons, Jurisprudence Commons, Legal History Commons, and the Legal Profession Commons Recommended Citation Reich, Charles A. (2012) "A Passion for Justice," Touro Law Review: Vol. 26 : No. 2 , Article 3. Available at: https://digitalcommons.tourolaw.edu/lawreview/vol26/iss2/3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ Touro Law Center. It has been accepted for inclusion in Touro Law Review by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ Touro Law Center. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A Passion for Justice Cover Page Footnote 26-2 This article is available in Touro Law Review: https://digitalcommons.tourolaw.edu/lawreview/vol26/iss2/3 Reich: A Passion for Justice A PASSION FOR JUSTICE Charles A. Reich* Justice Hugo L. Black and CharlesReich February 27, 1966 * Copyright C 2010 by Charles A Reich. A.B. Oberlin 1949, LL.B. Yale 1952. This Article began with a letter from Professor Todd Peppers of Roanoke College, who was preparing a book of experiences by Supreme Court law clerks. He asked me if I would contribute a description of my year with Justice Black, and I agreed. Later it was Professor Peppers who suggested the Post-Clerkship section. I started with what I expected to be a short piece in the spring of 2009. Greg Marriner worked with me on every draft from the earliest effort to the final page proof.
    [Show full text]
  • Divinity School
    umber 5 25, 2007 July N bulletin of yale university bulletin of yale Series 103 Divinity School Divinity 2007–2008 bulletin of yale university July 25, 2007 Divinity School Periodicals postage paid Periodicals Connecticut Haven, New 06520-8227 CT bulletin of yale university bulletin of yale Haven New Bulletin of Yale University The University is committed to basing judgments concerning the admission, education, and employment of individuals upon their qualifications and abilities and a∞rmatively seeks to Postmaster: Send address changes to Bulletin of Yale University, attract to its faculty, sta≠, and student body qualified persons of diverse backgrounds. In PO Box 208227, New Haven CT 06520-8227 accordance with this policy and as delineated by federal and Connecticut law, Yale does not discriminate in admissions, educational programs, or employment against any individual PO Box 208230, New Haven CT 06520-8230 on account of that individual’s sex, race, color, religion, age, disability, status as a special Periodicals postage paid at New Haven, Connecticut disabled veteran, veteran of the Vietnam era, or other covered veteran, or national or ethnic origin; nor does Yale discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity or Issued seventeen times a year: one time a year in May, November, and December; two times expression. a year in June; three times a year in July and September; six times a year in August University policy is committed to a∞rmative action under law in employment of women, minority group members, individuals with disabilities, special disabled veterans, Managing Editor: Linda Koch Lorimer veterans of the Vietnam era, and other covered veterans.
    [Show full text]
  • Journal of Supreme Court History Index
    INDEX TO THE JOURNAL OF SUPREME COURT HISTORY VOLUMES 1-44 (1976-2019) By JOEL FISHMAN, Ph.D., M.L.S. Associate Director for Lawyer Services, Emeritus Duquesne University Center for Legal Information/ Allegheny County Law Library Pittsburgh, PA Washington: The Supreme Court Historical Society, 2020 Copyright: The Supreme Court Historical Society, 2020 TABLE OF CONTENTS Contents I. CHRONOLOGICAL INDEX .......................................................................................................................... 1 II. AUTHOR INDEX.......................................................................................................................................... 39 III. TITLE INDEX ............................................................................................................................................. 73 IV. SUBJECT INDEX ...................................................................................................................................... 108 1. Introductions ................................................................................................................................................. 108 2. Articles. .......................................................................................................................................................... 111 Administrative Law ......................................................................................................................................... 111 Admiralty Law ................................................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Reinhold Niebuhr and the Soviet Union, 1930-1945 Chen
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by ScholarBank@NUS FROM A CHRISTIAN SOCIALIST TO A CHRISTIAN REALIST: REINHOLD NIEBUHR AND THE SOVIET UNION, 1930-1945 CHEN LIANG (M.A) The Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences A THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE 2007 Acknowledgements This study of Reinhold Niebuhr would not have been possible without the generosity of the National University of Singapore (NUS). I want to express special thanks to the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) of NUS for awarding me a research scholarship for four consecutive years. FASS also funded my four months’ fieldwork in the U.S. in 2005, as well as an earlier conference trip to the University of California, Davis. The Png Poh Seng Prize (Best Student in History) it awarded me in the 2003- 2004 academic year has been a constant reminder that this thesis should be written to a high standard. My supervisor Professor Ian Lewis Gordon, former head of History Department of NUS and Dr. Stephen Lee Keck, my former supervisor, who left NUS to teach at the American University of Sharjah in 2006, played critical roles in the development of this thesis. Professor Gordon painstakingly went through the whole draft and provided invaluable suggestions and corrections. His attention to details in editing my writing has left indelible marks on my mind. I am truly grateful to him for the time and energy he has put in my thesis.
    [Show full text]